Question for fellow Roman Catholics Regarding the Homily?

<<Question for fellow Roman Catholics Regarding the Homily? What makes a good homily?>>

A good homily is Dogmatically accurate.

<<What makes a bad homily (specifically)?>>

A homily that is Dogmatically inaccurate.

<<How often would you say you hear a "bad" homily?>>

Not often. The priests at my parish give quite prolific homilies regularly.

<<How do you react to a good vs. bad homily?>>

A good homily enlightens me to Truth(s) I was not aware of before.

A bad homily. Most of the time, the "bad" isn't about the homily itself but in it's delivery. Let's face it, some priests are better orators than others. A given priest's homily might have a lot to offer but if his delivery is "flat", chances are I'm going to zone out before my interest is locked into the homily.

Therefore, for me, the "bad" isn't so much the content of a given homily but in it's delivery.

<<I ask this because the homily is my favorite part of the mass. It gives me a window into what the priest is thinking and I like to carefully scrutinize what he says. I don't often hear truly bad homilies, but I do hear a lot of homilies that are too analogical or too emotional and not objective or philosophical.>>

I like it when my priest imparts historical perspective into the Bible readings he's preaching about. I also like it when he gets "theologically deep", I don't know how else to put it.

I also like it when my priest isn't afraid to 'tell it like it is' when it comes to such popular secular ideals as abortion, same-sex marriage, and embryonic stem cell research.

normally the homily is taken from the readings of the day, but now and again a switch can be made depending on a specific topic, abortion, attacking a politicians rant, most are very good especially if you already know the readings .

Well, we can't expect a good homily all the time. And it's not our objective going to church. We go to church to celebrate communion, to remember God's love.

God bless you!